Capítulo 1534: 33
Chapter 33Summary:
A new body for one person and the loss of another.
The Ancient One's past is finally known.
Chapter Text
"We will require the Stones to be brought to the Well of Sight." Verdandi answered. "There we will use their power to reach across Time and Space and into the Reality from which you came. From there we will draw forth the disembodied soul of the one called the Vision, we shall draw his soul here and using the Power and Reality Stones, we will forge a 'seed'."
"And what will you do with this 'seed'?" Darcy asked.
"We will use it as the base for Yggdrasil to grow a body to house his soul." Skuld answered.
"A body?" Darcy blinked.
~~~
Unnamed planetoid – approximately June 5th 2012
"And you're not concerned about that? Not at all?" Quill asked looking at the slender blonde man, who hung slumped between Tony and Bucky's supporting arms.
"Um…" Bucky grimaced.
"No. Nope. Not at all. Not in the slightest." Tony's smile was bright and happy.
"Right…" Quill stretched the word out for seconds.
"It's fine." Nat said. "Vision is Wanda's… Hmm… Let's call him, her other half."
"She is his focus. Much like Gamora is, to you." Nebula added.
"Oh… Okay." Quill nodded his acceptance of that comment and turned to the Norns. "Now, what?"
"Now we guide you in hiding the Stones." Verdandi said and Quill was sure he heard pleasure in her voice.
"Come, Sorcerer of Midgard, come to the Well of Sight." Verdandi gestured with her hand to a pocket of shimmering… something… in a hollow of the roots of Yggdrasil.
"What do I need to do." The Ancient One stepped forward.
"Look into the Well." Verdandi ordered.
"The Waters of Sight will show you what you must do." Skuld said.
"It will show you when the Stones were placed and where." Urðr added.
The Ancient One didn't speak as she stepped gingerly across the room to the hollow sat, before dropping her eyes to the shimmer. As she looked, the shimmer grew until it was a great light that filled her mind with images.
"Right, let's do this." She muttered and let the light subsume her.
Those watching saw her take on the translucent shimmer of whatever it was that filled the Well, leaving her looking more like a metallic greyscale image, than a living person.
"The Soul Stone." Even her voice had changed, becoming metallic, like something slightly synthesised. "Who has that?"
"I do." Nat stepped forward and held up a silvery metallic bag.
The Ancient One turned slightly from facing Nat and a familiar fiery circle formed in the air and spread into a portal to another place.
"What the…?" Came the startled voice from within the portal.
"Wong, step forward." The Ancient One ordered. "But do not enter the portal."
"Uh…? Why?" The voice sounded a little closer and a lot younger than Tony expected it to.
"Give him the bag." She told Nat and those standing back watched the bag being passed through the portal. "You will create a Mirror Dimension that only you may enter. Take this." She held out a hand and blob of light went with the bag. "You know how to use this. Only once you have a stable Mirror Dimension, will you activate it. You will follow its instructions and never deviate from them." Her voice went harsh. "Never, you understand… never… To deviate, means the destruction of the entire universe. Of every living thing that exists, on all worlds and in all dimensions. You will never speak of this, again. Not with anyone, not even me."
"Understood." One hand accepted the blob of light, while a second took the bag. Within seconds the portal closed and the fiery light faded.
"Is he…? Will he…?" Quill paused halfway through whatever he was going to ask.
"Yes, he will do as asked." Skuld nodded.
"He has never spoken of this event." Urðr added.
"And he never will." Skuld agreed.
"Good to know something's going right." Quill muttered.
"To place the Power Stone in the Heart of Nidavellir, will require the use of both the Time Stone and the Space Stone." Urðr warned them. Loki sighed, but stepped up, alongside a wary Quill.
The Well of Sight pulsed and the Ancient One hummed. "Yes…" She whispered. "I See…" She turned from the Well to face the two. "Loki of Asgard, hold open the bag, the Stone must be exposed to the Well of Sight, for me to be able to direct it."
Loki blinked a few times and opened the bag, folding it down around a small blue stone held between fine wires that formed a decorative cage.
"Yes…" The Ancient One whispered. "Yes…" Her hands moved and as the Space Stone flared, another portal opened.
This time the portal opened into blackness, a writhing, swirling, tumbling mass of black fire, doing its best to escape from whatever was holding it back. It took only a few seconds for the heat of the flames to fill the small room, making it almost unbearably hot. The Space Stone went back to its dull blue, but the Ancient One's hand moved again and the Time Stone flared brightly, its green light hitting the black flames and driving them back, driving the heat back. Finally, the flames seemed to reverse themselves, seeming to be created from nowhere, before being sucked back into the depths of a wall of black fire.
"Peter, Son of Meredith, stand forth." The Ancient One's voice was distorting even further and her appearance was becoming translucent, the edges of the Well being visible through her arm, as she raised her hand. "You must open the Orb and throw the Power Stone into the Heart of the star." She gestured at the black flames. "Without-"
"Without touching it, directly. I know." Quill nodded and pulled a small silver ball of the bag that hung at his hip. If the visitors saw that his hand was trembling, they ignored it, just as he did.
"Correct." The Ancient One nodded.
"Right." Quill twisted the Orb in his hands and it fell into two halves. One half was dropped to the ground, while the other half rested in his hand for a second, before Quill's face screwed up and he hurled the half-Orb, and the purple Stone it held, into the still writhing black flames.
It took a bare second for the silver to melt away, leaving the Power Stone exposed to the black flames of Nidavellir. Another second slipped by and the flames changed, now their edges were tinted with the deep purple of the Stone.
"And so did the Stone of Power came to rest in the Heart of Nidavellir." Urðr's sombre tones filled the room.
"Now for the others." The Ancient One said. "They-"
"Wait." Tony cut in. "Before that, what's happening to you? You've gone all… metallic-y. And see through."
The Ancient One looked at Tony for a few moments before sighing. "You know as well as any, there is a price to pay for using the Stones."
"No." Tony objected. "No, that's not happening." He shook his head. "This isn't what we agreed on. This isn't part of the plan."
"As Yinsen once said. This was always the plan." Her voice was soft and sad.
"No…" The horror and fear was clear on Tony's face and he slid to his knees, dragging Bucky and the man they held, with him.
"You'll see me again. Quite soon, in fact." She turned to face the others. "Quickly now, my life-force is limited and this needs to be done. The Time Stone first, then Space." Her fingers moved and a third portal opened.
Loki's face was impassive, but his eyes spoke of volumes of pain, as he held up the bag with the Space Stone exposed to the Well. A vast emptiness filled the portal and with a spike of blue light, the portal zoomed in on a sliver of shape. That shape soon resolved itself into a root of Yggdrasil, twisting out into the vast emptiness.
"The Mind Stone, if you would, Son of Coul." The Ancient One barely twitched a finger before Coulson opened the bag that he'd carried since leaving Earth, letting the Stone inside it show. He bounced the bag and the Stone flew into the air, he twisted and flicked out a foot. The Mind Stone deflected off the toe of his highly polished oxford shoe and such was the precision of his balance that he landed as softly as though stepping of a single stair, while the Stone entered the portal and came to rest against the root. It flickered and its light flared bright before the Stone was absorbed into the root.
"Next is the Reality Stone. Dr Foster?" The Ancient One's fingers moved and the portal changed, a different root now visible.
"Good riddance." Jane opened her bag and pulled her arm back, hurling the now-free Stone into the portal. The flash of red was almost expected but the slice of gold that was spat back at her, wasn't. She threw her hands up to protect her face and was stunned when what hit her hands wasn't a weapon but a piece of fruit. "An apple?"
"Not just any apple, Lady Jane." Thor whispered. "T'is a Golden Apple of Immortality. One of Iðunn's."
"Huh." Jane grunted and narrowed her eyes at the winking red light as it seemed to laugh at her. "Typical." She muttered.
"And so to the Space Stone." The Ancient One's fingers twitched again and again the portal moved to a different place, this time not so much a root as the base of the great Tree's trunk. "There." She pointed and after following her directions, Loki saw what appeared to be a tiny crack in the Tree's bark.
"I see it." He nodded and raised his own fingers. The Stone left the folded down bag and rose into the air it rotated slowly in front of the visitors before floating gently into the portal. It seemed to take an age before its blue light filled the crack and traced the edges of the Tree's bark.
"Just the Time Stone left." The Ancient One's voice was barely a whisper and the visitors could clearly see the Well through her, she was little more than a shadow, now.
The portal again moved but this time, it showed the root of the Tree above the Well. If it weren't for the ragged cracks and peeling bark, the visitors wouldn't have guessed that the portal was anything more than a circle of fire. The Ancient One's fingers moved and closed around the Time Stone and her shadowy form crossed to the portal, her hand pushing the Stone into the bark and watching with a smile as its green light filled the cracks and crevices of the root.
She turned to face the visitors, her smile soft and warm. "It is done." She sighed before looking at Tony.
His eyes went wide in shock. "Morgan…" He exclaimed, almost silent in surprise.
"Love her, as you did me. She is me, I am her." A tear ran the Ancient One's face, down Morgan Stark's face. "I love you, three thousand."
A whisp of air and the shadow that had once been a person faded into the broken light that filled the room.
~~~
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